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It started life as a weekly email newsletter offering recipes for turkey ragu and butternut muffins. But goop, the lifestyle brand launched by Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow ten years ago this month, has since branched out.

It has become a clothing manufacturer, podcast (Oprah was its first guest), health, sex and wellbeing advisor, supplement range, pop up shop and advertising hub, all rolled into one glossy package. A glossy package that was valued earlier this year at $250million, no less.

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It started life as a weekly email newsletter offering recipes for turkey ragu and butternut muffins. But goop, the lifestyle brand launched by Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow ten years ago this month, has since branched out.

It has become a clothing manufacturer, podcast (Oprah was its first guest), health, sex and wellbeing advisor, supplement range, pop up shop and advertising hub, all rolled into one glossy package. A glossy package that was valued earlier this year at $250million, no less.

According to a 2017 goop blog post, when inserted, the golf ball-sized eggs, which are made from either jade ($66 per egg) or rose quartz ($55), “help cultivate sexual energy, clear chi pathways in the body, intensify femininity and invigorate our life force."

California’s consumer protection office disagreed and brought a lawsuit against goop. “The health and money of Santa Clara County residents should never be put at risk by misleading advertising,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen, in a written statement released this week. "We will vigilantly protect consumers against companies that promise health benefits without the support of good science… or any science.”

The settlement also applied to a goop-approved $40 “flower essence”, which it claimed could cure “heavy heartedness” and depression.

When the original egg story appeared on goop it was quickly criticised by doctors and gynaecologists, who said that rather than invigorating life force, it could give users a bacterial infection.

It’s not the first time Gwyneth, and goop, has been accused of using pseudoscience to sell health and wellbeing products, or offer unsubstantiated health advice.

In October 2015, a blog post featured an interview with Habib Sadeghi, owner of an ‘integrative health centre’ in LA, who believes the disproven claims that underwire bras are linked to breast cancer.

The post, which was titled, ‘Could There Possibly Be a Link Between Underwire Bras and Breast Cancer?’ was swiftly criticised by doctors with one stating: “It’s breast size that increases the risk of breast cancer and not because larger breasts need more manhandling by underwires, but because larger breasts are harder to screen and are associated with obesity, a known risk for breast cancer.”

Yet still the goop claims kept coming: letting yourself be stung by bees helps with scars and inflammation, for example. “I’ve been stung by bees. It’s a thousands of years old treatment called apitherapy,” claimed Gwyneth, proving if nothing else she has the courage of her convictions.

Another widely mocked claim was that vaginal steaming can help balance your hormones. “You sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et all,” said Gywneth about a so-called 'V-steam', which again was criticised by doctors who said it could cause infections and even burns.

Last June, a goop post spoke glowingly about wearable stickers that “re-balance the energy frequency in our bodies” and claimed the stickers were, “made with the same conductive carbon material NASA uses to line space suits so they can monitor an astronaut’s vitals during wear.” Something NASA denied and Mark Shelhamer, their former chief scientist, called “a load of BS.” The reference to NASA was removed from goop’s website.

In July 2018, goop held a wellness summit in New York called 'In goop Health', which was attended by 600 people and celebrity guest speakers including Drew Barrymore and Chelsea Handler. On the panel was Kelly Brogan, a ‘holistic health psychiatrist’, who is known for disputing vaccinations, which sent more criticism goop’s way.

Less seriously, there are the constant accusations of elitism: a chocolate dessert called “sex bark” that requires $138 worth of ingredients. A set of three cheese knives for $425, a $100 fruit bowl and a casserole dish for $1,220.

“Gwyneth is selling a slice of her glossy lifestyle with goop,” says nutritionist Ian Marber, who runs a weekly #NutriB******s (my asterixis) feature on Twitter, which calls out dubious health claims. “But it all gets a little more worrying when she starts dishing out health advice.

The claims that are made in goop would not pass muster in Europe. But in the US you can pretty much say what you like about health products and food, as long as you follow it up with a small disclosure along the lines of, ‘This statement has not been approved by the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration agency)'.”

Marber says that goop came along at a time when wellness started to become a religion: “And the wellness devotees needed a self-appointed high priestess, which Gwyneth seems to have become. I’m sure she’s lovely, and I’m sure goop started off as a well-meaning place to talk about health, but when you’re a celebrity talking about things like cancer and depression you have a responsibility to realise your voice is that much louder.

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“There’s also a touch of the Dunning Kruger with all this,” says Marber, of the theory that some people have illusory superiority and mistakenly believe they know more than they actually do.

“This is something a lot of wellness bloggers and Instagram stars seem to have – they’re convinced they know best and certainly better than the doctors and the scientists. And if they’re slim, good looking and glossy enough, their captive, trusting and un-questioning audience believe it too.

“Gwyneth seems like a nice woman, but I don’t think she looks at the facts too closely. I’m sure some of the stuff she’s tried has worked for her, which is great. But that doesn’t make it scientific fact. She knows about a certain lifestyle, yes, but not necessarily about science.”